A Different Path
by Dark Messiah55
Summary: After a certain occurrence, Naruto has a paradigm shift. Stops fooling around so much, instead becomes more serious about being a shinobi. He will be stronger, though not overpowering. Will definitely be smarter. Pairings will be decided later on. Read to find out more. AU


**Author's Note Hey guys. I know I wrote another fan fiction, but I want you to forget it because I felt I wanted to start anew. Please bear with me, I promise I won't disappoint!**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. (this is the first and last time I'm writing this, so remember it.)

"Talking" 'Thinking' "**Summon/Bijuu talking**" Jutsu 

**Chapter One **

"Naruto, there's something I have to tell you. Something involving the Sandaime Hokage. During the invasion, Orochimaru assassinated him. He's dead, Naruto. I'm sorry"

Those were the words that had been running through his mind for the last couple of days. After he'd heard them, his world had come crashing down on him. At first he didn't believe them; after all, how could the indomitable Third Hokage fall to someone like Orochimaru? A man who, in his prime, had earned the moniker of Kami no Shinobi (God of Shinobi). How could he fall to some snake loving bastard with a strange fetish for young boys? But he had had no choice but to believe it. After all, why would his own sensei lie to him about something like this? Kakashi had told him while he was in hospital, recovering from his fight with Gaara. He'd zoned out while thinking about it. His grandfather in all but blood had just passed away. The very first person to treat him like a human being, like Uzumaki Naruto. He was his most precious person and now he was gone. Forever. After he'd asked Kakashi to leave him to his thoughts, he'd sat there for hours, thinking about how life was so sudden. One day you're alive and the next you're dead. The unpredictability of life really confused the blonde genin.

He had released himself from the hospital after that, preferring to mourn in the privacy of his own apartment, he felt okay anyway so he didn't see a use of staying. It had been two day since then and the funeral was today, but strangely he didn't want to attend. What he wanted to do was sit in his apartment and sulk some more. That's exactly what he was going to do before he heard a knock at the door. "Whoever you are you are, please go away, I'm not in the mood for condolences," he said. And really he wasn't. He knew that eventually Sakura or Kakashi would come and try to get to move on, but how could he just move on. They couldn't even begin to try to understand the pain he was going through so they couldn't just tell him to move on."Naruto, open this door this instant otherwise I'll break it down if I have to." Now Naruto was confused. He'd expected it to be Sakura or maybe even Kakashi to be here and yet Iruka's voice was the one the he had heard. With a sigh, he got up off his bed and made his way to the door. "Iruka-sensei, can I help you?" Naruto asked in a voice that definitely said he wasn't in the mood to help anyone. "Actually, Naruto, I was wondering if I could help _you_. I know that you know it's the Hokage's funeral today and I think that you should go to it. I think that it would be best if you came to say your final goodbye." After a little hesitation, Naruto said to Iruka "Sensei, please come in. There's something that I want to talk to you about." He stepped back to allow the chunin enter. "Please sit down," he continued once his former teacher had come in, gesturing to his threadbare couch that he'd salvaged quite some time ago. The blonde sat down and, after a few minutes of gathering his thoughts and finally deciding how to say what he wanted to say, said "Iruka-sensei, you're probably wondering why I don't want to go to the funeral. Well, you see, I have this fear that the old man will start being forgotten. People will remember his great acts but won't remember him. Kind of like the Yondaime. I don't think that anyone knows what his favourite food or colour was, what his childhood was like or anything like that. People remember him for having killed the Kyuubi and saving Konoha. You see, no one remembers him as the man he was but rather as a faceless hero. I don't want that to happen to the old man, and I don't want to be part of the people that are going to be doing that to him. Iruka pondered this for a while before he spoke, then said "I understand, Naruto. But I won't lie to you, I cant force people to do things. And to tell the truth, the funeral is about you going to see how other people are feeling or doing, it's about you going to say goodbye to someone you loved-love- dearly. And I can assure you, if you don't go today, you'll regret not saying goodbye. So it's your choice: you can stay here and sulk and pity yourself or go to the funeral and say goodbye to your grandfather. And you know which one he'd want you to choose. With that Iruka got up to leave. He looked down at Naruto, smiled then said "And you do as well,' then left the apartment, leaving Naruto to ponder his words. After a good five minutes, Naruto got up and went to the bathroom to shower.

At the funeral, everyone was crying but strangely enough Naruto shed not one tear. Asuma allowed Naruto to sit at the front with the family. Just as Naruto had fearfully expected, the people spoke only about the Third's fighting prowess. They talked about how he earned his nicknames of Kami no Shinobi (God of Shinobi) and The Professor. Even his former teammates said nothing about his character during their genin days save for how they were not surprised when he was made Hokage at thirteen. Naruto felt like leaving after that but decided against it when the talk he had had with Iruka flashed through his mind. He endured and got up only when it was his turn to lay a flower on Sarutobi's grave. Once everyone had finished, the funeral was over. Suddenly, it started raining, hard. 'Well isn't this convenient?' Naruto thought. 'It seems the sky is crying for me.' He made the necessary hand seals for the Shunshin (body flicker) and made for his apartment.

XXXXxXXXX

The next morning, Naruto made his way to the bridge at which he and his friends usually met. Once he had arrived, he discovered that he was the first one there. 'Strange. I'm not usually the first one here,' he thought to himself. While he waited for the others to arrive, Naruto started to think. He started to think about how he was doing as a Shinobi. After his grandfather figure, Sarutobi, had passed away, he'd thought to himself 'I'm weak. If I were stronger, I could've stopped Orochimaru at the Forest of Death. But I was too weak. Sure, Orochimaru has had a much longer time to hone his skills, but still, I should have been stronger. I should be stronger than him. I have a teacher that's a Sannin, like him. And I have the Kyuubi inside me, the strongest of the bijuu, and yet I can be beaten so easily. Just what have I been doing with my time? He beat me so easily and I could tell that he was holding back immensely. I was a plaything to him.' But then he'd dismissed those thoughts as folly. Orochimaru is a S-ranked Sannin and he is merely a genin. That was last night that he'd been thinking those thoughts, after the funeral. He'd banished then though, but here they were, resurfacing again. 'Why do I feel so weak?' After a few seconds considering the question, he came to a conclusion, 'Because I am weak. Besides the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu), I don't know any real jutsu. And even with the Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu) I can only summon Gamabuntu, and I can hardly summon him all the time. My taijutsu is horrible, nothing more than brawling. And I don't even want to think about my genjutsu. Just what have I been doing with my time? Ha! I know exactly what I've been doing: Pranks, being an idiot and trying to get Sakura to go on a date with me. I scream and shout about how I'm going to be Hokage and yet I don't even have the skill necessary to back up my claims. I've never actually won a fight with my own skills, I'm always to pull something out of my ass at the last moment. During the fight with Haku, I had to use Kyuubi's power. During the fight with Orochimaru, I had to use that power again. During the fight with Kiba I had to fart on his face to win. During the fight with Neji I had to use the Kyuubi's chakra once again. During the fight with Gaara, Gamabunta had to come and win the fight for me. Every single fight I've had, I've only won because of either a demon or summoning, not with my own skills. I hate that! From now onwards, I'm going to get stronger by myself so I don't have to use someone else's power. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't use Kyuubi's power if the need arises. I'll use his power if I really have to. I'm going to get stronger so that I can protect my precious people!' Kakashi chose that time to appear. Naruto was surprised, it usually took Kakashi a minimum of two hours to arrive and now it had only been about seven minutes. "Yo," Kakashi said casually. "What are you doing here, Naruto?" Naruto shifted from surprise to confusion. "What do you mean, sensei? We always meet here on Monday at 8 o' clock. Where are the other , by the way? I've been here for about ten minutes and they aren't here yet." Kakashi sighed, then said, "Didn't Sakura visit you to tell you that were aren't meeting today? I told her to tell you last night." Naruto, looking sheepish and scratching the back of his head said, "Ha ha. About that, Sensei. I, uh, sent her away because I didn't feel like talking to her." Kakashi, with a slightly annoyed tone, said, "Okay. But please, next time just let your teammate say what they came to say. Anyway, as I said, we aren't going to be meeting up today. I wanted to give you guys a day off to relax and get yourselves together. Goodbye." With that Kakashi disappeared."Oh well, I may as well go relax," the blonde said out loud, feeling quite content to just do nothing that day. "And I know just the place" A picture of steaming hot springs came into his mind unbidden.

XXXXxXXXX

On his way to the hot springs, Naruto saw a perfectly square rock, with two holes on it, which he assumed was the front of it. It followed him for about 60 meters, then when Naruto had enough turned around to confront the brat that he knew was following him. He really didn't feel like talking to him right now and said, in a bored tone, "What do you want, Konohamaru?" Konohamaru suddenly threw the rock that was obviously a box in the air and drew himself to his full height, which wasn't much, then made a strange pose that Naruto guessed Konohamaru thought was cool. Konohamaru, unexpectedly, did not have fireworks or smoke bombs or his friends this time. All he suddenly had was a sad expression on his face. Naruto was very surprised; he did not know people could change their expressions from confident looking to suddenly sad. Naruto, who know what Konohamaru was going to want to talk about, made a smokeless shadow clone and a smokeless Kawarimi (substitution). He felt bad about ditching Konohamaru like, but he did not feel like spoiling his day by talking about that. So he continued on to the hot springs, looking forward to relax in the soothing waters.

When he got there, he wasn't too surprised to see Jiraiya peeping at the other side. He decided he didn't feel like saying anything so he just got inside the hot springs and allowed the water to smoothen all the tension in his body. After a while, Jiraiya said, "Don't you greet anymore, brat? Where has your respect gone off to?" Naruto did not fell like Jiraiya crap so he said, with mock respect, "Good day oh great and awesome Jiraiya-sama." Jiraiya was not pleased and said," Now listen here, gaki (brat), there's no need to be rude. And is that how you thank someone that taught you the jutsu that saved yours and your friend's lives?" He was finally getting fed up with the blonde's continuous disrespect. Naruto sighed. He realized that perhaps he had finally pushed Jiraiya too far. "Look, Ero-senninn I'm sorry, okay? I'm just a bit touchy right now, what with…" Suddenly his eyes became unfocused, looking at nothing like a blind person. "Oi, gaki! You okay?" Jiraiya asked with a worried tone in his voice. A second later Naruto's eyes snapped back into focus, memories of talking to Konohamaru suddenly flooding his mind. 'What the heck was that?!' he thought worriedly.' I know I ditched Konohamaru but now I'm suddenly remembering giving advice about how to deal with his grandfather's death-' he couldn't finish his train of thought because Jiraiya chose that moment to talk. "Oi gaki! I asked if you're okay!" the white haired man, getting slightly angry at being ignored. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. But something strange just happened. When I was coming here, I ran into Konohamaru, but I ditched him with a shadow clone. But now, all of a sudden, I'm remembering the conversation they'd had. How is that possible?!" Suddenly Jiraiya laughed out loud. Wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, he said" Did sensei not tell you about that? Ha! Did you really think that shadow clones were designed for fighting? If you did, then you're dumber than I thought gaki. Have you never wondered why they cease to exist only after one hit? Because they aren't designed for fighting. Their man purpose if espionage. You see, once a clone is destroyed, all that it saw, heard, smelt, all of that is sent back to the original. That makes them perfect for reconnaissance. I'm surprised that you haven't figured that out by yourself." Naruto was embarrassed, he laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, and then he said," Well, I've never used them for something like this. I usually use them for fighting and they all see and hear what I see and hear so I've never noticed it.." He paused then suddenly an idea made itself known to him Wait a minute, that means that I could train faster! If I sent my to the library to read up on jutsu and thing like that, it would save a lot of time. I can make some other clones to practice my taijutsu and things like that. Oh Kami (God)! There's so much that I could do! Thanks so much, Ero-sennin! You know, just this morning I was wondering how I could get stronger and this is the perfect solution Thank you so much!" With that, Naruto ran from the hot springs and made his way to the library to begin his learning, leaving a slightly amused Jiraiya behind. "There's some hope for you yet, brat." Then he went back to his 'research'.

**Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed that first chapter. I do actually have a plan for this story, but you are free to suggest something. I'll probably update every few days. Peace. God Bless!**


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